The Kutubiyya Lightning..The decor of the Kutubiyya prayer hall is in keeping with Tinmal's tradition: vigorous, sober and hierarchical.
The arches of the transverse nave and the last arch of the axial nave are decorated with muqarnas. The other arches of the prayer hall, broken beyond, are supported by quadrangular pillars of plaster-coated bricks and have no decoration. The mass of these support organs is lightened by false engaged columns surmounted by capitals. The latter have a floral decoration that is organized in two rows of flat acanthus, the lower row being sometimes reduced to a simple ribbon forming a meander. Exceptions are the tents near the mihrâb. The acanthus leaves offer a more varied digitation, the style of which is certainly archaic but rather fine. The capitals of the Kutubiyya, like Tinmal's, allow us to understand the genesis of the Andalusian-maghrebin marquee, derived from the composite type of headband used on a large scale in Caliphate art and in the 11th century. There are many affinities with the works of the palace of the Aljaferia de Zaragoza (11th century) where the rich decor of palms covers the emancipation of the capital of the Cordoba. The decor of the Kutubiyya prayer hall is in keeping with Tinmal's tradition: vigorous, sober and hierarchical. The Kutubiyya Mosque (Booksellers) was built after the fall of the Almoravids and the glorious entrance of the Almohades into the capital Marrakech in 1147. There they destroyed Almoravid religious buildings and began the construction of new sanctuaries. Abd al-Mu' min, decided to build a large mosque on the site of the Almoravid palace of' Alî ibn Yûsuf.Kutubiyya underwent two major phases of construction. Of the first foundation (poorly oriented in relation to Mecca) only a few remains remain. The second phase (current building) follows the same plan and a minaret is erected in the southeast corner. The mosque, of trapezoidal plan, is one of the largest sanctuaries of the Maghreb. Its prayer hall has seventeen naves perpendicular to the qibla, whose layout reproduces, as in the Tinmal and Kairouan mosques, a T-shaped plan. This type of plan was already known in Mesopotamia in the ninth century, at the Abu Dulaf mosque in the city of Samarra (Iraq). This device is created by two magnified naves with five domes, one in the dumihrâb axis, the other transverse and parallel to the qibla wall. This structure is perhaps an inheritance of the Fatimids, whose naves were placed in front of the qibla and magnified by domes at the end of the 10th century. K.A.C. Creswell assumes that three domes surmounted the transverse nave of the al-Hakim Mosque in Cairo. Four vast galleries on either side of the courtyard follow the lateral naves, a pattern identical to that of the Abu Dulaf mosque. The prayer hall is accessed through six side doors, all of which are protected by imposing forebodies.
The Kutubiyya Lightning..The decor of the Kutubiyya prayer hall is in keeping with Tinmal's tradition: vigorous, sober and hierarchical.
The arches of the transverse nave and the last arch of the axial nave are decorated with muqarnas. The other arches of the prayer hall, broken beyond, are supported by quadrangular pillars of plaster-coated bricks and have no decoration. The mass of these support organs is lightened by false engaged columns surmounted by capitals. The latter have a floral decoration that is organized in two rows of flat acanthus, the lower row being sometimes reduced to a simple ribbon forming a meander. Exceptions are the tents near the mihrâb. The acanthus leaves offer a more varied digitation, the style of which is certainly archaic but rather fine. The capitals of the Kutubiyya, like Tinmal's, allow us to understand the genesis of the Andalusian-maghrebin marquee, derived from the composite type of headband used on a large scale in Caliphate art and in the 11th century. There are many affinities with the works of the palace of the Aljaferia de Zaragoza (11th century) where the rich decor of palms covers the emancipation of the capital of the Cordoba. The decor of the Kutubiyya prayer hall is in keeping with Tinmal's tradition: vigorous, sober and hierarchical. The Kutubiyya Mosque (Booksellers) was built after the fall of the Almoravids and the glorious entrance of the Almohades into the capital Marrakech in 1147. There they destroyed Almoravid religious buildings and began the construction of new sanctuaries. Abd al-Mu' min, decided to build a large mosque on the site of the Almoravid palace of' Alî ibn Yûsuf.Kutubiyya underwent two major phases of construction. Of the first foundation (poorly oriented in relation to Mecca) only a few remains remain. The second phase (current building) follows the same plan and a minaret is erected in the southeast corner. The mosque, of trapezoidal plan, is one of the largest sanctuaries of the Maghreb. Its prayer hall has seventeen naves perpendicular to the qibla, whose layout reproduces, as in the Tinmal and Kairouan mosques, a T-shaped plan. This type of plan was already known in Mesopotamia in the ninth century, at the Abu Dulaf mosque in the city of Samarra (Iraq). This device is created by two magnified naves with five domes, one in the dumihrâb axis, the other transverse and parallel to the qibla wall. This structure is perhaps an inheritance of the Fatimids, whose naves were placed in front of the qibla and magnified by domes at the end of the 10th century. K.A.C. Creswell assumes that three domes surmounted the transverse nave of the al-Hakim Mosque in Cairo. Four vast galleries on either side of the courtyard follow the lateral naves, a pattern identical to that of the Abu Dulaf mosque. The prayer hall is accessed through six side doors, all of which are protected by imposing forebodies.